1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved method and system for transferring data to a sewing/embroidery system. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and system for using wireless transmission between a sewing/embroidery machine and a source system to update stitch information in a memory card.
2. Description of Related Art
Advances in computer technology have provided the embroidery and sewing machine market with various methods to transfer embroidery designs to an embroidery or sewing machine. Embroidery designs are employed by the embroidery or sewing machine to guide the machine's movement of the embroidery arm. The embroidery arm is directed to stitch the same pattern specified in the design.
Embroidery designs may be acquired in a variety of ways, including purchasing designs stored on floppy disks and CD-ROMs, or downloading designs from the Internet and storing the designs on a computer's hard drive. The embroidery design is then typically supplied to the embroidery or sewing machine via a data storage device, such as a memory card or floppy disk. The memory card or floppy disk is typically inserted into a built-in embroidery card slot within the embroidery machine, which reads the contents of the card and is then able to stitch the designs stored on the card.
Current methods for transferring designs obtained from a source such as a PC's hard drive to an embroidery machine include storing these designs on a blank memory card and transferring the designs to the embroidery machine in the same manner as describe above.
However, conventional methods for updating the stitch data available to the embroidery machine can be cumbersome. For example, the content of the memory card or floppy disk is updated with desired stitch data via a PC or other source system. Next, the updated card or disk is physically carried from the source system to the embroidery machine. The updated card or disk is interfaced with the embroidery machine and the desired stitch information is then available for use. Since these steps are performed each time new stitch information is desired, changing stitch data available to the embroidery machine can be a time-consuming process.
In addition, although some conventional embroidery machines include the ability to directly connect to the PC, the addition of this interface method to the embroidery machine requires that the machine software be extensively modified or designed from the ground up prior to implementing this peer-to-peer protocol.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method and system for updating stitch data available to an embroidery machine.